The U.S. Southern Command released an image on Tuesday of a Marine from the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, part of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, firing an M4 rifle during a skills assessment at the Camp Santiago Joint Training Center in Salinas, Puerto Rico.
The photograph corresponds to September 22 and was shared by the official account of Southern Command on X with the message: «Ready and on mission».
Southern Command specified that its forces operate "in support of the Western Hemisphere Joint Task Force, under operations led by the Department of War, and the priorities of the president to disrupt illicit drug trafficking, deter malign actors, and protect the homeland."
The publication does not mention Cuba, but it comes at a time of sustained escalation of military and political pressure from Washington towards Havana.
The image is yet another example of a continuous sequence of exercises that the 3/2 has been conducting at Camp Santiago since the summer. In previous weeks, the battalion carried out live-fire exercises with 60 mm mortars, used FPV drones like the Neros Archer, tested anti-tank systems, and practiced landing maneuvers with MV-22B Osprey aircraft.
In mid-June, the governor of Puerto Rico, Jenniffer González-Colón, announced that more than 8,100 military personnel had conducted exercises on the island between May and August.
The 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit —operating as Littoral Combat Force-24— commenced its mission in the Caribbean on May 29 with over 1,300 Marines and sailors under the command of Colonel Ryan Lynch, aboard the USS Fort Lauderdale.
On August 4, U.S. Southern Command officially activated the Western Hemisphere Joint Task Force with the stated mission of combating cartels and narcoterrorist networks in coordination with a coalition of 18 countries.
This deployment is part of increasing pressure from the Trump administration on the Cuban regime.
In January, Trump signed an executive order labeling the policies of the Cuban government as a “unique and extraordinary threat” to U.S. national security, and in May he went so far as to claim that the U.S. “will take Cuba almost immediately”.
On September 25, CBS News leaked an internal Army document that assessed the availability of reserve units for Southern Command within a timeframe of 90 to 120 days, although the text did not mention Cuba nor did it constitute a deployment order.
Trump himself dismissed an immediate military action on September 26, stating that he preferred "an agreement". Days later, the commander of Southern Command, General Francis L. Donovan, visited the Guantanamo Naval Base to inspect unmanned systems deployed in support of the task force.
Havana, for its part, has not ignored the signals. The Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío warned on October 4 that underestimating American references to a possible military action would be “naive and irresponsible.”
The next day, Deputy Minister Josefina Vidal Torres stated that Cuba is increasing its defensive capabilities "now more than ever," as part of what the regime has referred to as the "Year of Preparation for Defense."
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